I am compelled to write you regarding the replacement of the present income tax law. The old law has flaws but it contains 70 years of congressional haggling, bargaining, and horse trading. A great many of the deductions allowed in the present law were put there specifically to improve the well being of the country.
I believe that the proposed law is patently unfair to everyone except the very poor, those who cheat on their income taxes anyway, and the sacred-cow oil industry.
The existing tax code should be pinpoint-bombed, not totally thrown out. Investment tax credits are needed to spur our sagging blue-collar industries and should not be eliminated at a time when our industries are in a state of near depression. I believe instead that credits should only be given on products that contain 90% U.S.A.-produced parts and 100% U.S.A. labor.
In a day of $230-billion budget deficits, it seems that putting so much congressional time and effort into a revenue-neutral bill is insane. I think new revenues are needed along the lines of recent federal tax increases, such as the cigarette tax, liquor tax, and 5 cents per gallon gas tax.
